Hadestown

 A few years ago, we started to attend more live performances.   Broadway in Boston has turned into a sincerely enjoyable past time and we even became season ticket holders.  One of the benefits of holding season tickets is that we have attended shows we may not have normally found the energy to see. 

One of those shows was Hadestown.   Although the story line sounds a bit unusual - an underworld, mythical Greek characters, the music in Hadestown is phenomenal and the show, like almost every show, challenges the audience to better understand our relationships, our viewpoints and our humanity. It became one of my all-time favorites.

If I had cassettes or records, this song would be worn out by now.  It is stunningly beautiful, with one of the best song intros of all time. 

[HERMES]
(spoken)
Orpheus was a poor boy
But he had a gift to give
He could make you see how the world could be
(sung)
In spite of the way that it is

(spoken)
And Eurydice was a young girl
But she'd seen how the world was
When she fell
She fell in spite of herself
In love with Orpheus

All I've Ever Known 

I was alone so long
I didn't even know that I was lonely
Out in the cold so long
I didn't even know that I was cold
Turned my collar to the wind
This is how it's always been

All I've ever known is how to hold my own
All I've ever known is how to hold my own
But now I wanna hold you, too

You take me in your arms
And suddenly there's sunlight all around me
Everything bright and warm
And shining like it never did before
And for a moment I forget
Just how dark and cold it gets

All I've ever known is how to hold my own
All I've ever known is how to hold my own
But now I wanna hold you
Now I wanna hold you
Hold you close
I don't ever wanna have to let you go

Now I wanna hold you, hold you tight
I don't wanna go back to the lonely life

I don't know how or why
Or who am I that I should get to hold you?
But when I saw you all alone against
The skies like I'd known you all along

I knew you before we met
And I don't even know you yet
All I know is your someone I have always known

All I know is you're someone I have always known
And I don't even know you
Now I wanna hold you
Hold you close
I don't ever wanna have to let you go

Suddenly the sunlight
Bright and warm

Suddenly I'm holding the world in my arms

Say that you'll hold me forever
Say that the wind won't change on us
Say that we'll stay with each other
And it will always be like this

I'm gonna hold you forever
The wind will never change on us
Long as we stay with each other

Then it will always be like this

Lion Hybrid Industries

Using this space to memorialize this chapter for J, Founder and CEO of Lion Hybrid Industries! 

J you are a boy who sticks to your guns.  When you were 2 or 3 you decided that your favorite color was red.  Since then, there has been no doubt what color you'd choose for the plastic gingerbread man in Candyland, your backpack, your new folders for back to school....   When you were 4, you shed tears in the car the night before your 5th birthday because "I don't want to be 5, 4 is my favorite number!" You've since added a little to that, and now 44 is you favorite number - and as you were learning to add double digits, the first combination requested was always a pair that would make 44!   

You're a boy of conviction.  A few years back, you decided lions were your favorite animal.  There's a lion calendar in your room, plenty of early I Can Read books were about lions and you memorized nearly every episode of the Lion Guard, Disney's successor to the Lion King, my guess - not watched by too many.  Nobody at Auntie Amy's house for Christmas of 2020 will forget your enthusiasm over your favorite gift, AN ASIATIC LION STUFFED ANIMAL!!  Just what you'd always wanted ;) 

I think it was a nature show when you first learned of the nearly extinct Barbieri Lion.   You needed to know more - it was black.  There was one in a zoo in Europe.  Somewhere between there and now, you have decided your future job will be a "Hybrid Lion Scientist" - extracting DNA from Lions and Big Cats and making combinations "Lither (Lion/Panther), Litah (Lion/Cheetah), and of course the Black Lion (Lion/Jaguar)!"

My favorite part of this chapter is watching your passion and creativity explode!  You have endless ideas and energy for your future company, Lion Hybrid Industries.   At school last week, the kids were invited to dress as their future careers.  We picked out a shirt on Amazon and you proudly wore it to school and described to your 3rd grade classmates what your future job would entail.  While other kids talked about a career in the NBA or a builder, you stood confidently and explained your role as a Lion Hybrid Scientist.  I asked if anyone understand your dream, you responded "most said 'I have no idea what he's talking about!'"   I said, "ha, they said that?"   You said, "no, but I could tell that's what they were thinking in their heads"

Oh my J.  Perfectly you.  Perfectly happy marching to the beat of your very own drum.  One of my only wishes for you is that you never, ever lose that sense of security about yourself.   The world is yours..... my smart, funny, creative, kind son. 

                                                                    Career Day, 3rd Grade

                        You assigned roles to many of your friends and I helped you draft a company org chart!